FINANCE Outlook cloudy SUPERDRY no longer expects to make a profit this year and may have to raise new funds. Poor weather had resulted in less demand for the compa ny’s new springsummer col lection and sales had been hit by the cost of living crisis hit, the British fashion brand ad mitted.
Tax facts MULTINATIONAL companies pay corporation tax averaging 21.8 per cent in Spain, more than seven percentage points below the European Union’s 29.03 per cent. Meanwhile, more than half of large Span ish groups pay corporation tax amounting to less than 20 per cent according to tax authority Hacienda.
CBI shamed THE British Insurance Brokers’ Association, representing 1,800 insurance brokers and intermediaries, left the scan dalhit Confederation of British Industry (CBI) following sexual assault allegations against se nior staff. The CBI admitted that some members had left but stressed this was only in “singledigit” numbers.
Gas cash SPANISH engineering and con struction companies Tecnicas Reunidas, FCC and Turkey’s Enka secured a €1 billion con tract to build one of Ger many’s three planned regasifi cation plants for liquid natural gas (LNG) near Hamburg. An other Spanish company, Sener y Cobra, will be responsible for another in Brünsbuttel.
Charge sheet LESS than 12 years before the first ban on diesel engines comes into force, the UK has no public electric chargers or hydrogen refilling station for lorries. Lack of infrastructure makes it impossible for opera tors to decarbonise their fleets, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) warned.
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is the amount that Inditex was worth on April 17 as shares rose by STAT OF 1.22 per cent, putting the fashion chain ahead of power company WEEK €98.8 billion Iberdrola and Santander bank.
Deflating inflation figures INFLATION in the UK fell less than was hoped, hampered by food and drink prices rocketing by 19.1 per cent. The annual rate measured by the consumer price index (CPI) dipped to 10.1 per cent in March, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said, continu ing its downward path after Febru ary’s 10.4 per cent. Economists had expected a fall to 9.8 per cent but instead inflation re mained in double figures as food and drink prices rose at the fastest annual rate since 1977. Britain was the only country in western Europe with doubledigit in flation in March, compared with an average of 6.9 per cent in the euro zone and 5 per cent in the United FC BARCELONA is putting the finishing touches to plans for financing its Espai Barça project with a €1.5 bil lion bond issue. Amongst other plans, this will finance a complete re modelling of the club’s Camp Nou football ground. As investors will expect an interest rate of around 6 per cent costing the club an an nual €90 million, the market is waiting to see how and where it will seek the fund ing to meet these extra pay ments. Little has gone smoothly for the club since announc ing its plans to finance the Espai Barça project.
Photo credit: Pexels/Gustav Fring
MARCH INFLATION: In double figures owing to food and drink prices.
States. It looks as though the Bank of Eng land will again raise the interest rate with financial markets now betting on
a 97 per chance that the Bank will in crease the base rate by a quarter of one percentage point to 4.5 per cent on May 11. There were indications, insiders said, that this could hit 5 per cent by the autumn. Referring to the March figures, Grant Fitzner, the chief economist at the ONS, said the principal drivers of the reduction were motor fuel prices and heating oil costs. “Both fell after sharp rises at the same time last year. Clothing, furni ture and household goods prices in creased, but more slowly than a year ago. However, these were partially offset by the cost of food, which is still climbing steeply, with bread and cere al prices at a record high.”
Done deal EL CORTE INGLES has paid a to tal of €500 million to finalise its deal with Sheikh Al Thani. With this transaction, the department store group ac quired 4.2 million of its shares, representing 5.53 per cent of the group’s capital and half of the 10.33 per cent owned by AI Thani through Luxembourg registered Primefin. El Corte Ingles repurchased these shares in June 2022 in an operation originally valued at €385 million. The final amount was increased to €500 million to include compensation and interest, principally as com pensation to Primefin which granted a €1 billion loan to El Corte Ingles in 2015.
Barça’s on the ball Home help Photo credit: Flickr/Mobilus Mobili
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CAMP NOU: FC Barcelona plans to remodel iconic football ground.
Initially, Barcelona had hoped for a €1.5 billion pri
vate placement of bonds on Wall Street, split into three €500million tranches. The first would have been due on June 30, 2032, and the second on June 30, 2045. The club would have paid in terest on the third tranche only until 2045 despite ma turing on June 30, 2052. These plans came to nothing. Beset by the Ne grerira scandal over bribes to the vicepresident of the football referees’ commit tee, which coincided with last March’s banking crisis,
the club had to rethink its plans. This involved reducing the number of bonds and taking on a bank debt that will be guaranteed by JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs. Some finer points have still to be decided, including the final amount of both the bonds and the bank loan. Sources close to the process suggested that ultimately the bond issue would be somewhere under €1 billion and the loan somewhat over €500 million.
Flat batteries
A smooth ride
Meter pact
MTE Power, a small produc er of lithium ion batteries, initially intended to build its first factory capable of largescale production in Dundee. The company recently told Sky News that it was considering whether to switch from the UK to the US where it would benefit from American subsidies under the Inflation Reduc tion Act. “Unless we can make the UK a competitive place for battery manufacturers, we probably won’t end up with a battery manufacturing in dustry in the UK,” AMTE Power’s chief executive Alan Hollis said.
NATIONAL EXPRESS reported a rise in firstquarter revenues thanks to its UK buses and German rail improvements. Overall earnings rose by 25 per cent to £774.4 million (€879.7 million), consis tent with expectations, while Spanish subsidiary ALSA reported solid growth, especially on long haul and Morocco routes. UK earnings rose 27 per cent yearon year, with scheduled coach revenue up 87 per cent on 2022, reflecting the recov ery from the Covidrelated restrictions 2021 and the impact of rail strikes. Thanks to its firstquarter results, Na tional Express shares immediately rose 4.25 per cent after having fallen by around 48 per cent over the 12 months. The company’s German rail interests rose 10 per cent on 2022 while it expects a 13 per cent price increase on the US bus contracts once these expire.
ENERGY FIRMS agreed to ban forcible installation of prepayment meters in the homes of customers who are over 85. Representatives must in future wear body cameras as part of a new code of conduct, the Guardian revealed. Suppliers reached agreement with the government regarding new guidelines for installing the meters in situations where house holders have run up an energy debt. There will be no repetition of agents brandishing courtapproved entry warrants to break in to install them, power companies pledged. They must now make at least 10 attempts to contact a customer and then conduct a ‘site welfare visit’ before a prepayment meter is installed.
THE Bank of Spain (BDE) revised the number of mortgages eligible for social protection measures agreed with the government and finance sector in late 2022. The updated and extended Code of Good Practice was ex pected to benefit one million vul nerable households and those at risk of defaulting on mortgage payments. Instead, Spain’s supervisor cal culates that this would assist 550,000 families should the inter est rate rise from the current 3.5 to 4 per cent. Nevertheless, past figures for households accessing the 2012 Code also suggested that only 200,000 households would bene fit, according to Bank of Spain’s latest Financial Stability Report.
Cheers Heineken HEINEKEN has finished the first quarter of its fiscal year with buoyant sales in Spain. The multinational brewing company reported that its net in come grew by more than 20 per cent owing to increased volume and the combination of channels and brands. Sales of the 0.0. nonalcoholic brand performed exceptionally well in Spain, together with the entire premium range led by El Aguila. In addition, Spain is one of six markets that have completed the transition to Eazle, one of the largest ecommerce platforms in the world, the company said.
